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August 16th, 2005
Transmeta Corporation (NASDAQ:TMTA), which low-power microprocessor
and power management technology, has reported second quarter revenue of $24.7 million for its quarter ended June 30, 2005.
This compares to $6.0 million for the second quarter of 2004. The company, which recently changed its business model to an
Intellectual Property (IP) model, for the second quarter broke down its revenue. It includes $10 million in license
revenue, $7.6 million in service revenue and $7.1 million in product revenue. For the second quarter of 2004, the company
did not have any IP license revenue, but had $0.3 million in service revenue and $5.7 million in product revenue.
The company indicated that the increase in product revenue was a
reflection of end-of-life product sales. The company also reported deferred revenue of $15.5 million in the recent second
quarter, which was an increase of $1 million compared to the first quarter of 2005.
Transmeta also released numbers for the six months ended June 30,
2005 and June 30, 2004. For the latest six months revenue was $31.56 million compared to $11.2 million for the same period
in 2004. Of the $31.6 million, $10.0 million was from licenses, $8.08 million from service revenue and $13.47 million was
from product revenue. For the six months ended June 30, 2004, there wasn’t any license revenue, service revenue was
$0.52 million and product revenue was $10.68 million.
August 9th, 2005
Boston Circuits, Inc, a fabless semiconductor company focused on
the development of multicore processors for distributed processing applications, in an effort to accelerate its multicore
processor development, has named Gregory Recupero, Director of Hardware Development at the company. Mr. Recupero, with experience
in management positions at a number of integrated circuit and EDA firms, which include TimeLab Corporation, ARC International,
MIT's Lincoln Laboratory, Number Nine Computer and VAutomation, Inc., will lead the design, verification and manufacturing
team for Boston’s gCORE’s family of multi-core processors, a processor architecture that integrates 16 cores designed
to enhance the operation of Internet multimedia devices.
Boston’s new architecture called Grid on Chip, essentially
creates a complete network of processor cores on one chip. The company’s GridWare technology rounds out the solution.
GridWare is instrumental to the multiprocessor solution in that it determines which software routine will run on which processor
core at what time, freeing system designers from the task.
August 9th, 2005
Opulan Licenses MIPS32 Core for Broadband Chip Applications
Opulan Technologies Corporation, a fabless broadband semiconductor
company based in China, has licensed MIPS Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:MIPS) microprocessor core, the MIPS32 4KEc Core. Opulan
plans to use the core for the development of SoC chips for the Asia Pacific xDSL access equipment market. Dr. Jian Liu, vice
president, engineering at Opulan indicated that the MIPs core offered a better solution for broadband applications, "The MIPS
architecture is proven and respected throughout the Asia Pacific region, so it made good business sense to select MIPS Technologies
for our current and future product development. Leveraging the user-defined- instructions, performance and low power consumption
of the MIPS cores allows us to deliver superior solutions to market quickly and cost-effectively."
August 3rd, 2005
Alliacense, a TPL Group enterprise, has reported that it has increased
its efforts to have system manufacturers license its microprocessor patent technology. The company notes that Intel Corporation
(NASDAQ:INTC) and Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD), two of the largest producers of microprocessors for PCs, have already
obtained MMP licenses.
Alliacense says its program involves the notification of over 100
system manufacturers about the intellectual property protected by the Moore Microprocessor Patent (MMP). The company indicates
that the patents cover technology that has been widely implemented in microprocessors, digital signal processors and system-on-a-chip
solutions. With such a broad base of product coverage, the patents may require that most system companies obtain patents to
ensure that their product lines and product development efforts don’t suffer legal impositions that could play havoc
on their market positions. System companies, these days, have more of an interest in licensing of the technology in
order to protect their end-products from injunctions if it is found that an integrated circuit in their product is in violation
of the patent. Often chip companies will also name system companies in litigation if a system compay’s end-product
uses a chip that violates their patent.
Mac Leckrone, president and COO of Alliacense pointed to a single
licensing approach as an attractive way to protect system companies, "Clearly, the most attractive path for our system manufacturing
customers is to acquire a single inexpensive license that covers an entire system.”
The MMP Portfolio, licensed exclusively by the TPL Group, is reported
by the company to cover US '336: Separate CPU and I/O clocks; US '584: Multiple Instruction Fetch; and US '148: On-Chip Oscillator
and Embedded Memory patents. The portfolio is protected in Europe, the United States and Japan until the year 2015,
according to the company.
Charles H. Moore, CTO for the TPL Group, and inventor, has designed
several microprocessors. Specific microprocessors include the F21 processor and the Sh-Boom microprocessor. NASA is one agency
that has used Moore’s microprocessor technology.
JULY 26th, 2005
Intel has reported a 15 percent increase in revenue year-over-year
for its second quarter. The company announced revenues of $9.23 billion for the three months ended July 2, 2005 versus $8.05
billion for the three months ended June 26, 2004. For the six month period ended July 2, 2005, revenues were $18.67 billion
versus $16.14 billion for the same period ended June 26, 2004. The company expects sequential growth in the third quarter.
Intel projects for that quarter, revenue may come in somewhere between $9.6 billion and $10.2 billion.
Intel also briefly highlighted the results for the quarter. Intel
reported that microprocessor units were at record levels, with a lower average selling price due in part to an increase in
Xbox processor shipments. Along with record microprocessor shipments, the company reported that wireless connectivity units
established a record. Also higher record levels of flash memory units with lower average selling prices and higher chipset
units were reported. On the downside were lower motherboard units and lower wired connectivity units.
Although year-over-year revenue was 15 percent higher, sequentially
revenue declined. For the first quarter of 2005, total revenue at Intel reached $9.43 billion. Microprocessor revenue and
chipset revenue increased sequentially in Intel’s Mobility Group, which is focused on wireless applications. Microprocessor
revenue in the Mobility Group was $2.06 billion for the second quarter of 2005 compared to $1.92 billion for the first quarter
of 2005. Chipset and other revenue in the Mobility Group was $566 million in the second quarter of 2005 compared to $516 million
in the first quarter of 2005.
Microprocessor revenue from the Digital Enterprise Group fell from
$4.94 billion in the first quarter of 2005 to $4.60 billion in the second quarter of 2005. For the first half of 2005, Digital
Enterprise Group microprocessor revenue declined to $9.55 billion from $9.65 billion for the same period last year. This contrasts
starkly to mobility microprocessor revenue, which almost doubled to $3.97 billion for the first six months of 2005 when compared
to $2.39 billion for the first six months of 2004. For all of 2004, the Mobility Group’s microprocessor revenue was
$5.67 billion with sequential gains for each quarter in 2005. On the other hand, Digital Enterprise Group microprocessor revenue
peaked in the fourth quarter of 2004 at $5.26 billion. Flash memory chips, part of the Mobility Group also, also peaked in
terms of dollars in the fourth quarter of 2004, at $643 million. For the latest second quarter, flash memory chip sales at
Intel were reported at $528 million.
Within the Mobility Group, Intel specifically pointed out sales
of its application processors used for phones and other consumer electronic products. It reported strong demand and double-digit
year-over-year growth. Intel pointed to the fact that O2, a major European telephone company, had designed a new cellular
phone based on the Intel PXA800F baseband chipset for GSM/GPRS networks.
Commenting on Intel’s performance in the quarter was Paul
Otellini, President and CEO of Intel, "Intel delivered record second-quarter revenue, with growth of 15 percent versus a year
ago led by strong demand for our notebook platforms. Our investments in new products, advanced silicon capacity and emerging
markets are paying off with growth that is outpacing the industry. We look forward to the second half of 2005 as we ramp dual-core
microprocessors into high volume, begin production on our 65nm process technology and deliver innovative new platforms."
Intel continues to press forward through its process technology.
Intel has sampled three new dual core microprocessors based on its 65 nanometer (nm) process, which should lead to high
volume ramps in 2006. Further underscoring its manufacturing focus Intel has entered into an agreement with Corning
for the development of low-defect photomask substrates for high volume 32 nanometer chip designs. Intel also noted that for
2005 its capital expenditures are expected to be between $5.7 billion and $6.1 billion, which is above the $5.4 billion to
$5.8 billion it previously projected. The reason given was higher expected demand.
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